The prior art has utilized vacuum pick-up devices for moving sheets from stacked positions, and it has also already utilized rotating plates or the like which move on the bottom surface of the lower sheet in the stack to uprightly support a portion of the stack and to ultimately be clear of the portion of the stack so that the vacuum pick-up device can take the sheet from the stack. Such prior art pick-up devices are commonly known by anyone skilled in the art and they utilize a rotating plate which sweeps across the bottom of the stack and has a cut-out therein for the location and operation of the vacuum pick-up device which alternates with the plate for contacting the sheet.
The present invention improves upon the prior art in that it utilizes two flat plates which move across the bottom surface of the lower sheet in the stack and sweep the lower sheet in the nature of urging it to its opposite sides for creating a smooth and flat plane at its portion intermediate its opposite sides, so that the vacuum pick-up device can securely engage the sheet and remove it from the bottom of the stack.
Further, the present invention provides for the two plates to be oppositely rotating plates which sweep the lower sheet into a smooth and flat plane and which then clear the sheet so that two vacuum pick-up devices can operate on the smoothed portion of the sheet for removing the sheet. Still further, the present invention provides for an adjustment mounting for the rotating plates so that they can be adjustably moved toward and away from each other to accommodate sheets of various widths, and thereby adequately condition the lower sheet into the smooth and flat plane mentioned.